Simple Town’s horror comedy debut Big Break is rough around the edges but full of flavor as it premieres at Fantasia 2026.
Director: Ian Faria
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Thriller
Run Time: 87′
Fantasia Screenings: July 19-21, 2026
U.S. Release Date: TBA
U.K. Release Date: TBA
The pipeline from sketch comedy to horror filmmaking is well worn. Jordan Peele walked it, Zach Cregger followed, and this year Curry Barker’s Obsession became one of its biggest success stories. Arriving on the heels of that wave and sure to invite comparisons, is Big Break, the feature debut of Simple Town, a New York alt-comedy troupe known for viral sketches and sold-out Fringe runs. It is too rough around the edges to be the crispy midnight classic it wants to be, but it has real flavor, and a kitchen of cooks who believe in the dish.
Years after their sketch group dissolved, Will (Will Niedmann), Caroline (Caro Yost), and Felipe (Felipe Di Poi) accept a weekend invitation to the secluded woodland home of Sam (Sam Lanier, of Good One), the former partner who ditched them after The Gummy Bears Movie made him a box office name. Their agenda is transparent: talk their way into the sequel. But a dark secret slips out, old resentments curdle, and killing stops being a metaphor for a good set.
What gives Big Break its pulse is that Simple Town is not playing pretend. Lanier, Niedmann, Yost, Di Poi, and director Ian Faria have collaborated since 2016, through live shows, Adult Swim spots, and self-produced tours, watching peers skyrocket past them. The film channels that anxiety, the terror of a friend’s success, and horror proves a shrewd delivery system. A comedy about career melancholy might meander. A slasher about it has stakes, momentum, and a body count.
For most of the cast these are first leading roles, and it shows. The dramatic beats reach further than they can grasp, landing stilted where the comedy crackles. Lanier’s script is at its best digging into the cynical nerve endings only longtime friends can pinch, springing a few clever twists as its 87 minutes scootch by. Di Poi has visible fun, and Yost, who also edited the film, cuts it so generously her costars nearly outshine her. Lanier, ironically the most Hollywood-looking of the group, struggles hardest to convince us he has surpassed anyone. Jefferson White (Yellowstone) and Ivy Wolk (Anora) round out the ensemble.
If there is a misstep, it is in the director’s chair. Faria has steered many of Simple Town’s most successful shorts, and his presence is vital to their identity, but a feature operates on levels a sketch never has to, and Big Break might have benefited from a helmer with more seasoning and some distance. Then again, it pays a dividend. With Faria directing and the cast playing versions of themselves, the film radiates a we-are-all-in-this-together energy: if one goes down, they all go down. That solidarity is fascinating to experience.
The craft elsewhere is what you would expect at this budget, and nothing embarrasses. Cinematographer Alex Bliss shoots anamorphic in tribute to the sleek grit of 90s ensemble slashers like Scream, the wardrobe winks at the live-action Scooby-Doo gang, and Emmy-nominated composer Kyle Rodriguez supplies a score punchier than the budget suggests. Steve Smith, of I Think You Should Leave, handles creature effects, and Helmet plays you out at the credits. These are choices by people who love Friday night movie theater movies and want them back.
Like Broken Lizard before them, Simple Town serves an acquired taste, and plenty will bounce off their chaotic, cringe-forward sensibility. Big Break recalls scrappy friends-made horror comedies like Jeremy Saulnier’s Murder Party more than any multiplex hit, and is unlikely to be the breakout its title winks at. But it is a slyly interesting first feature, made by a unit so cohesive the seams become part of the charm. It premieres on July 19 at Fantasia’s 30th edition in Montreal, where audiences have long embraced this kind of genre hybrid. This may not be Simple Town’s big break, but it is a promising crack in the door.
Big Break (2026): Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
Three struggling comedians reunite with the former partner who made it big in Hollywood, hoping to land roles in his next movie, but a weekend in the woods turns deadly when a dark secret surfaces.
Pros:
- Lanier’s script crackles with the cynicism only old friends can access
- Anamorphic 90s slasher style and a killer Helmet needle drop punch above the budget
- A genuinely cohesive troupe whose decade of chemistry carries the film
Cons:
- Dramatic beats land stilted next to the comedy
- The troupe’s cringe-forward humor is an acquired taste
- A director from outside the troupe might have brought needed seasoning
Big Break was screened at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 19, 2026 and will be screened again at the festival on July 21.